Deepavali, Oppa KL Style!!

I'm a little delayed in getting this blog out - but here are the highlights from our quick trip to Kuala Lumpur. Considering it was a 72 hour trip, I'd say we got it done!!

Sunday (Nov 11)
Early (like 3:45am early) in the morning, Jacob and I shrugged on our backpacks (ok, he actually took his trumpet case - the boy, he crazy) and caught a cab to Changi Airport, excited for our 3-day getaway. AirAsia's cheap flights make it possible to get around SE Asia, even on a budget - and safety is at least their 3rd or 4th priority, so you'll likely get where you're going in one piece! Probably...


Jacob was especially excited because for the first time, I had consented to CouchSurf. CouchSurfing is an internet-facilitated community where people can offer their couches (or spare bedrooms...or pent houses) as a free place to stay for travelers. The goal isn't just cheap/free accommodations either, but to connect people across the globe. What better way to get your bearings in a new place than to have a local ally to point out the cool stuff - and you may make some good friends as well!

Those apartments all the way
at the top - with the really big
windows - that's where we were!

Following our taxi/plane/bus/subway trip, we met up with our CS host. It turns out we hit the CS jackpot - not only a nice host family, but one that lived in a 4-story pent house apartment in a downtown high rise with a private pool on the roof. WHAT?! We promised not to describe them too much - they don't want to be overwhelmed by CS requests, but it was pretty awesome. We even got the karaoke room to ourselves!

The panorama is goofy, but this is the view from the roof-top pool Holla!

One of my favorite snacks too!

So we met J & J, our hosts, and we all went out to grab some lunch, followed by a stroll through the Lake Gardens on the west side of KL. Then Jacob and I proceeded to the Bird Park - the World's Largest Free-Flight Walk-In Aviary! And truly, it was awesome. I took about about a hundred pictures. I thought the best part was eating ice cream bars while looking at the Changeable Hawk-Eagle Dark Morph (what?!) - that is until we went to the parrot enclosure! The pictures below explain why...I also have video but no time (or home-based internet) to upload it right now.

This poor bird was so sure he could catch
one of those big fish! No such luck!

Yar! Jacob made a friend!

Yum! I also made a friend.

Then I made a bunch more friends, and got a little freaked out!

Such beautiful, intricate models - and huge!

After a few (hot and sweaty) hours at the bird park, we were relieved to enter the cool calm of the Islamic Art Museum. The museum was really spectacular. My favorite exhibit had over a dozen architectural models of mosques from all over the world. The detail was amazing, and it was fascinating to see the differences across the regions. There were stunning, 400+ year-old Qurans with illuminations of gold, spooky looking knives, daggers and swords, rich fabrics, and all kinds of jewelry and pottery. If you find yourself in KL, it is a must.

From there we walked to Chinatown (only ending up in one construction site) where we were overwhelmed by the rows and rows of stuff for sale. At dinner time we turned down the appealing option of going to Kenny Roger's Roasters (what don't you find in SE Asia?!) in favor a small Thai restaurant/bar filled only with chain smoking locals watching some heart-wrenching Thai music videos. The food was delicious, as was the Myanmar beer. After that, we called it a night and, after taking a chilly dip in the pool (in the rain), we went to bed.

Monday

I won't lie. This breakfast wasn't my fave.

We started the day with breakfast in Kampung Bahru, an interesting part of the city that seems almost rural, despite being right across the highway from the city center and the skyline-dominating Petronas Towers. Breakfast consisted of rice (dyed blue to celebrate Deepavali!) with crushed dried fish, chilis, and some other stuff sprinkled on top, and a fish for Jacob and fried chicken for me. And kopi ping - iced coffee with a generous dollop of sweetened condensed milk and sugar!!





We then went to the Petronas Towers, where the ground floors are dominated by a huge mall and where the Malaysia Philharmonic has its concert hall. Jacob had arranged to take a lesson with one of the MPO trumpet players, so he went off to that and I sat in the gardens behind the towers, staring up at them and enjoying the dancing fountains outside. In the shade, I could almost pretend it was cool!

Apparently, the creators of the special exhibit
were not aware that the term 'Red Indian' is no
longer an acceptable term for Native Americans -
Errrr.........................yeah.

We ate lunch at a Buddhist Temple before going to the KL tower, a sort of space-needle like tower. Incredibly touristy and rather pricey, but on vacation you gotta do those things! We went up the tower and enjoyed an expansive view of the city, picking out the places we'd already visited and watching the approaching rain. Then it was on to the National Museum. This museum was no where near as...put-together as the Islamic Art Museum, but it was interesting and sort of precious in its own right. The funniest part was maybe how things were labeled as being 'more than 100 years old' or 'probably 80 years old'- how's that for scientific?! The best part was the special exhibit about all sorts of traditional healing and medicine, including everything from dances to trances to acupuncture to leeches to eating dung.

Little India - all decked out for Deepavali!

Festival of Light

The stage, as viewed from the
restaurant balcony

After struggling to catch a taxi in the rain (good thing we had our rain coats - with pit vents!!), we made our way to Brickfields Little India, which was hyping up for the last night of Deepavali celebrations - there was even a big stage set up for a sort of variety show performance. We ate some good curry (we've decided that Indian food ALMOST relieves our cravings for Mexican food) and found that we could watch the stage from the balcony of the restaurant. We also met up with our friend Lisa Deng, a Fulbright scholar in KL (working on Palliative care too!) who I met by chance at a conference at Duke-NUS last month. She also brought her friend, Owen, who had just finished his Fulbright work in Malaysia. I felt acutely aware of how special it was - and how lucky we were - to have the opportunity to meet new people and experience new cultures together. We watched a great Michael Jackson interpreter (who we later met - Jacob shook his glove hand! Michael Magic!!) and heard Gangnam Style at least 5 times - because what says Happy Deepavali better than KPop's biggest hit? That's right - nothing! We strolled the streets, bought some roman candle fireworks and shot them off (yikes!), Lisa and I got henna tattoos on our hands, and then we sat down and had a drink before heading back. From the roof of the apartment we watched fireworks exploding in several places across the city as it got to be midnight.

Tuesday
The next morning we packed up and said goodbye to J&J, stashed most of our luggage in a locker at the sentral station, and took a train up to the Batu Caves. The Caves are a holy site for Hindus, and it was really amazing to be there on a holiday, when hundred of people came to be blessed and to pray. Lisa joined us, so the three of us explored together. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

I kind of love his bike shorts..

One of several temples at the base of the caves.

Lisa and me - you can see the steep steps
behind us. Long climb on a hot day!

Whoa - we're actually in a picture together!
Thanks Lisa!

Almost to the top!

Once you went into the cave, you came out into another
area that was open to the sky. The water dripping down
looked so beautiful!

Mmm they loved his feet. They're supposed to eat all the
dead skin off your feet. It really was refreshing. But so hard
to let them nibble between your toes - holy cow!

SUPER tickle-y!

Choco-Banana Crepe!

After climbing up into the caves and coming down, we joined in the free feast that one of the local ministers (gov't guys) was providing in the giant tents. Perfect timing, because just as we were eating, the rains came. I think this was my first glimpse of a monsoon rain - it was so intense! So we bought some coconuts (Jacob braved the rain) and sat back sipping them until the rain let up. We headed back down to KL, where Jacob and I checked out another market, had our feet nibbled by fish, and went to a big mall for a dinner of sushi followed by Japanese crepes for dessert (stuffed with bananas, lychees, chocolate ice cream and whipped cream!).

That evening we took a bus down to the airport (it was pretty far away) and checked into the Tune Hotel (so budget, you have to pay for a towel!) and got to bed early. We got up at 3:45 (again!), navigated to and through the crazy low-cost carrier terminal (laughably confusing). A plane and an MRT ride later, Jacob and I were back in Singapore. We headed straight to work - long day but worth it! If only I'd had a bucket of fish to nibble my feet while I worked!!
Thanks, dear reader, for reading to the end. This was a long one! I'll keep it shorter next time :)